Investigation of the Phytochemical Constituents of Diverse Epiphytes in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

Abstract

A study on the diversity and classification of epiphytes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was conducted on thirty (30) species of epiphytes. As an extension of the research work, fifteen (15) epiphytic plants were selected on the basis of data collected by administering semi-structured questionnaires to 90 respondents. The interest of this work is to investigate the phytochemical constituents of Ficus platyphylla, Senna mimosifolia, Platycerium stemaria, Nephrolepsis bisserata, Calyptrochilum emerginatum, Frullania dilatata, Perperomia pellucida, Plagiothecium undulatum, Pitrogramma calomelanos, Caprinus lagopides, Auricularia polytrichia, Formitopsis sp, Lycopodium clavatum and Entodon seductrix in the FCT, to determine their ethnobotanical uses. A qualitative and quantitative phytochemical study procedures were carried out using flavoniods, saponins, alkaloids and tannins. The result of the qualitative analysis on the diverse epiphytes showed that flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids and tanins were either present or moderately present in each of the epiphytes while that of quantitative indicated that the flavonoid content varied between 4.29 mg/100 and 52.61 mg/100. Calyptechium emerginatum has the highest flavonoid content of 52.61 while the lowest was Entodontpsis nitens with 4.29.